Visualizing your Data
Andreas W. Müller (andreas@muellermixedmethods.com)
MAXQDA's Visual Tools are used to visualize data that has already been coded. The
main goals of visualizations in MAXQDA2024 are:•

The exploration of data to recognize irregularities, patterns or preliminaryfindings•

Checking your own coding to identify coding errors.

•

The use of visualization to navigate your own data and to create specificqueries•

The presentation of results to illustrate or support content-related arguments
or findings

The Code Line: A Single Document as a ScoreThe codeline is a case-oriented visualization. A text is represented as a continuous
image of its codes, in the form of a matrix whose rows are formed by the codes andwhose columns are formed by the paragraphs, i.e. the text sections.

Code-Matrix Browser: Individual casecomparison
The Code Matrix Browser (CMB) is used to visualize the coding carried out in thedocuments. This graphical representation allows you to see at a glance whichdocument contains many or few segments in which category.

Document comparison diagram: topic structuresin comparison
This tool displays the coding for several text or table documents line by line forcomparison purposes. This makes it possible to contrast the structure, i.e. thesequence of coding for several documents.

Code Relations Browser: Code overlaps as a matrix
The Code Relations Browser visualizes which codes occur together in documents. A
distinction is made between three analysis modes:(1) Overlapping of codes in a segment(2) Proximity of codes at a defined distance(3) common occurrence of codes anywhere in the document.
The columns and rows of the Code Relations Browser are formed by codes. The
larger a square is displayed on a node, the more “relations” the two associatedcodes have.

MAXMAPs: Versatile concept maps
MAXMaps allows you to create concept maps, for example to visualize relationships,
causes and effects or even the concepts of a question. MAXMaps is primarily
intended to visualize the various elements of MAXQDA (codes, documents, memos,codings) on a work surface, a so-called map, and to place them in relation to eachother. Numerous model templates help you to visualize the relationships between
categories and subcategories and the relationships between individual or multiple
cases in just a few steps

Requirements and limitations of visualization•

Visualizations are an attractive way of displaying results in MAXQDA.
Nevertheless, they have some prerequisites for a targeted and valid
application:•Visualizations are mostly also quantifications of coded segments, as
frequencies are converted into areas or distances.

•This visual quantification requires great care when coding the data. How
large is a coded segment? What do the numbers, and their visualrepresentation mean?

•The specific data structure and heterogeneity must also be taken into
account. For example, different document lengths can give a distorted picturein the visualizations.

•The following always applies: Every visually determined finding must besubjected to a critical examination. A visual finding must always first be fully
understood in terms of content, then critically scrutinized technically and only
then can it be interpreted as meaningful in terms of content.

Further Reading
Müller, Andreas W.: Using MAXQDA’s Visual Tools: An Example with Historical
Legal Documents In: Gizzi, M. C. & Rädiker, S. (2021). The practice of qualitative data
analysis: Research examples using MAXQDA. MAXQDA Press. S. 55-70)
https://doi.org/10.36192/978-3-948768058
Rädiker, S. & Kuckartz, U. (2019): Analyse qualitativer Daten mit MAXQDA. Text,
Audio und Video. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-65822095-2
Tufte, E. R. (2001): The visual display of quantitative information (2. Aufl.). Graphics
Press.
Wheeldon, J. & Åhlberg, M. K. (2012): Visualizing social science research. Maps,methods, & meaning.

Contact your trainer

Andreas W. Müller (Vienna) andreas@muellermixedmethods.com

 + 43 677 637 566 88